BAMcinématek presents Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror, Oct 26—Nov 1 Highlighting 10 tales of rampaging beasts and supernatural terror

September 21, 2018/Brooklyn, NY—From Friday, October 26 through Thursday, November 1 BAMcinématek presents Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror, a series of 10 films showcasing two strands of Japanese horror films that developed after World War II: kaiju monster movies and beautifully stylized ghost stories from Japanese folklore.

The series includes three classic kaiju films by director Ishirô Honda, beginning with the granddaddy of all nuclear warfare anxiety films, the original Godzilla (1954—Oct 26). The kaiju creature features continue with Mothra (1961—Oct 27), a psychedelic tale of a gigantic prehistoric and long dormant moth larvae that is inadvertently awakened by island explorers seeking to exploit the irradiated island’s resources and native population. Destroy All Monsters (1968—Nov 1) is the all-star edition of kaiju films, bringing together Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah, as the giants stomp across the globe ending with an epic battle at Mt. Fuji.

Also featured in Ghosts and Monsters is Hajime Satô’s Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968—Oct 27), an apocalyptic blend of sci-fi grotesquerie and Vietnam-era social commentary in which one disaster after another befalls the film’s characters. First, they survive a plane crash only to then be attacked by blob-like alien creatures that leave the survivors thirsty for blood. In Nobuo Nakagawa’s Jigoku (1960—Oct 28) a man is sent to the bowels of hell after fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run that kills a yakuza. The film, showing on an imported print from Japan Foundation, depicts a sadistic hell reminiscent of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.

The series spotlights a selection of atmospheric ghost stories, all screening on 35mm prints, including legendary director Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (1953—Oct 27). Set during Japan’s 16th-century civil wars, Mizoguchi’s film weaves striking cinematography with the supernatural in a tale of a man whose desire for wealth leads him into the arms of a phantom princess. In Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Pitfall (1962—Oct 30)— the first feature film from the director of Woman in the Dunes and his first collaboration with screenwriter Kōbō Abe— is an eerie ghost story about alienation and capitalist exploitation. In telling the story of a former miner who stumbles across an abandoned city, Teshigahara emphasizes documentary realism over blood and gore. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Special Jury prize and an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language film, Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1964—Oct 28) tells four stories of ghostly encounters adapted from Lafcadio Hearn’s collection of Japanese folktales. Kaneto Shindô’s Kuroneko (1968—Oct 31), depicts a mother and daughter-in-law who return as murderous feline spirits after being brutally murdered by a band of samurai. Shindô’s Onibaba (1964—Oct 31) tells the story of a vengeful mother and daughter-in-law that survive by robbing samurai who have lost their way, until a possessed mask turns the women against each other.

For further press information, please contact: Maureen Masters at 718.724.8023 / [email protected] Lindsay Brayton at 718.724.8026 / [email protected]

Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror Schedule:

Fri, Oct 26 2, 4:30 & 7pm: Godzilla

Sat, Oct 27 2 & 7pm: Ugetsu 4:30pm: Mothra 9:30pm: Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell

Sun, Oct 28 2pm: Kwaidan 5:30pm: Jigoku

Tue, Oct 30 7pm: Pitfall

Wed, Oct 31 7pm: Kuroneko 9:30pm: Onibaba

Thu, Nov 1 7pm: Destroy All Monsters

Film Descriptions

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968) Dir. Ishirô Honda. With Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi. Under the control of a squadron of shimmery femme-aliens intent on conquering Earth, an all-star cast of kaiju—including Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah—romp and stomp their way across the globe, from New York to Moscow to Beijing. The 20th installment in Toho’s giant monster cycle culminates in the awesome spectacle of an epic, all-beasts-on-board battle atop Mt. Fuji. Digital. 90min. Thu, Nov 1 at 7pm

GODZILLA (1954) Dir. Ishirô Honda. With Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata. When a series of underwater nuclear tests awaken a long-dormant, radioactive reptile, it’s only a matter of time before the towering, indestructible Gojira stomps his way to Tokyo—and into pop culture immortality. Atomic-age anxiety spawned the most iconic (and most subsequently franchised) movie monster of the 20th century, turning national trauma into pulp mythos. DCP. 96min. Fri, Oct 26 at 2, 4:30 & 7pm

GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) Dir. Hajime Satô. With Teruo Yoshida, Tomomi Satô, Eizô Kitamura. After their plane crash lands on a remote island, a motley band of strangers find themselves menaced by an oozing, blob-like alien with a thirst for blood—and a hatred of the human race. Writ in blazing, supersaturated Fujicolor, this alternately hypnotic and thoroughly bonkers sci-fi freakout delivers an apocalyptic blend of outré grotesquerie and potent Vietnam-era social commentary. 35mm. 84min. Sat, Oct 27 at 9:30pm

JIGOKU (1960) Dir. Nobuo Nakagawa. With Shigeru Amachi, Utako Mitsuya, Yôichi Numata. Nobuo Nakagawa—Japan’s Roger Corman and Mario Bava rolled into one—drags us through the pits of hell in this head-spinningly hallucinatory cult classic. After he flees the scene of a hit-and-run that leaves a yakuza dead, a young man earns a one way ticket to the underworld, envisioned by Nakagawa as an abstract, Boschian nightmare of ceaseless carnage and cruelty. 35mm. 101min. Sun, Oct 28 at 5:30pm

KURONEKO (1968) Dir. Kaneto Shindô. With Kichiemon Nakamura, Nobuko Otowa, Kei Satô. Hell hath no fury like the seriously wronged undead ladies in this mesmeric tale of witchy revenge. After being brutally murdered by a band of samurai, a mother and daughter-in-law return as feline spirits who set about getting even by ripping open the throats of the men they ensnare. Shot in glittering, gorgeous widescreen black and white, Kaneto Shindô’s spectral shocker drips with dreamlike dread. 35mm. 99min. Wed, Oct 31 at 7pm

KWAIDAN (1964) Dir. Masaki Kobayashi. With Rentarō Mikuni, Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi. Among the most visually splendorous horror movies ever made, Masaki Kobayashi’s ghostly fantasia brings together four quietly chilling tales of otherworldly encounters adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folklore. The phantasmagoric art direction—a riot of painted backdrops and expressionistic lighting—and haunting Tōru Takemitsu score create an uncanny, all-enveloping sensory experience. 35mm. 183min. Sun, Oct 28 at 2pm

MOTHRA (1961) Dir. Ishirô Honda. With Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyōko Kagawa. The Toho-verse of mythic beasts continued to expand with the addition of its first female monster: Mothra, a winged avenger who unleashes pandemonium when the fairy-inhabited jungle island she protects is disturbed by explorers. Introducing a rich strain of fantasy and mysticism to his patented kaiju-gone-wild formula, Ishirô Honda crafts a pop art marvel of supreme wonder and strangeness. DCP. 101min. Sat, Oct 27 at 4:30pm

ONIBABA (1964) Dir. Kaneto Shindô. With Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato. In the marshlands of 14th-century Japan, a mother and daughter-in-law survive by robbing and murdering lost samurai—until primal passions, twisted mind games, and a demonic mask pit them against one another. Awash in psychosexual menace and indelible chiaroscuro images, Kaneto Shindô’s nightmare vision of feudal Japan lays bare the dehumanizing horrors wrought by poverty and war. 35mm. 102min. Wed, Oct 31 at 9:30pm

PITFALL (1962) Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara. With Hisashi Igawa, Kunie Tanaka, Hideo Kanze. The feature debut of Hiroshi Teshigahara was the first of his visionary collaborations—including Woman in the Dunes and The Face of Another—with writer Kōbō Abe and composer Tōru Takemitsu. Blending documentary realism with a jagged modernism, it’s an unsettlingly surreal tale of murder, conspiracy, and corporate exploitation in a desolate mining town—part anti-capitalist screed, part eerily atmospheric ghost story. 35mm. 97min. Tue, Oct 30 at 7pm

UGETSU (1953) Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi. Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka. Master director Kenji Mizoguchi interweaves social realism and the supernatural in this ravishing adaptation of a pair of 16th- century ghost stories. In the midst of civil war, a prideful potter’s desire for wealth draws him away from his faithful wife—and into the arms of a phantom princess. The exquisite elegance of the director’s signature long-takes pushes this shivery tale of patriarchal folly into the realm of the sublime. 35mm. 96min. Sat, Oct 27 at 2 & 7pm

About BAMcinématek

Since 1998 BAM Rose Cinemas has been Brooklyn’s home for alternative, documentary, art-house, and independent films. Combining new releases with BAMcinématek year-round repertory program, the four-screen venue hosts new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has hosted major retrospectives of filmmakers like Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, John Carpenter, Manoel de Oliveira, Luis Buñuel, King Hu, and Vincente Minnelli (winning a National Film Critics’ Circle Award prize for the retrospective), and hosted the first US retrospectives of directors Arnaud Desplechin, Hong Sang-soo, Andrzej Zulawski, and Jiang Wen. Since 2009 the program has also produced BAMcinemaFest, New York’s home for American independent film, and has championed the work of filmmakers like Janicza Bravo, Andrew Dosunmu, Lena Dunham, and Alex Ross Perry. The 12-day festival of New York premieres, now in its tenth year, ran from June 20—July 1, 2018.

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